Saimbeyli

Infobox Settlement

settlement_type = District
subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = TUR
timezone=EET
utc_offset=+2
map_caption =Location of PAGENAME within Turkey.
timezone_DST=EEST
utc_offset_DST=+3

official_name = Saimbeyli

---

subdivision_type1=Region
subdivision_name1=Mediterranean
subdivision_type2=Province
subdivision_name2 = Adana| population_total =
population_as_of =
population_footnotes =
population_density_km2 =
area_total_km2 = 1170|elevation_m = 1050|latd = 37
latm = 48
latNS = N
longd = 35
longm = 57
longEW = E
postal_code_type=Postal code
postal_code = 01xx
area_code = 0322
blank_info = 01|blank_name=Licence plate
leader_name =
website =

Saimbeyli is a district of Adana Province in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. The town of Saimbeyli is in the Toros mountains, 157km north of the city of Adana, by a difficult road. Population (2000) 17,140.

The town of Saimbeyli is on the river Göksu (one of the sources of the Seyhan, in a valley between the forested mountains of Dibek and Bakır. There is a pass through the mountains from here to Kayseri and the valley is watered by many mountain streams.

History

The area was occupied as far back as the Hittite period and many other civilisations subsequently. Then this is the spot where the Armenian city of Hadjin stood, the name coming from the son of an Armenian lord of the castle of Anavarza on the Cilician plain. When the plain was occupied by Turks, the Armenians retreated to the mountains and Hadjin was founded in 1096.

The city thrived until it passed into Ottoman hands.

During the late years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century, there were repeated massacres of Armenians throughout Anatolia, and in particular in Adana and Tarsus as well as in Hadjin. These massacres became the official genocidal state policy of both the Ottoman Empire in its waning days and by the new Turkish state that arose at the close of World War I ("The Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1915-16," Viscount Bryce, 1916, G.P. Putnam's Sons). The massacres were carried out by Turkish soldiers as well as by ordinary Turkish citizens and Kurdish tribesmen living in the surrounding mountains. During World War I, the Turkish authorities utterly destroyed the Armenian population of Hadjin in the most barbaric manner (no mercy was shown to Armenians as women, children and old men in the town were burnt to death in their churches. See the larger story recounted in the Armenian Genocide.) Rose Lambert, an American missionary in Hadjin in the early 20h century provides a wealth of details about earlier massacres in her book ("Hadjin and the Armenian Massacres," 1911, Fleming Revell Co. pub.). The last remnants of the original Armenian residents of Hadjin were deported into the deserts of Syria in 1915 by the Ottomans where most of them died of thirst, starvation, or were murdered. [http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/04/28/opinion/12779.shtml] . There are no Armenians in Saimbeyli today. The city of Hadjin was destroyed during WWI.

Places of interest

*near the village of Bahçeköyü there is a castle perched on a rock. This rock has been fortified since antiquity and the castle played an important role in the crusades.
*"Hadjin castle" (known as "Badimon" in the middle ages)

ee also

* [http://www.saimbeyli.gov.tr/media/brifing/brifing.htm | an illustrated report on the area from the local governor's office - in Turkish]
* [http://www.hadjin.com/ History and heritage of Hadjin]